Former Real Madrid player Edwin Congo has been arrested in connection with an ongoing probe into a cocaine smuggling syndicate in Spain. Spanish police authority confirmed his arrest on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, but didn’t reveal his level of involvement in the cocaine smuggling syndicate which is being investigated.
The retired footballer was arrested and detained in Madrid where he base since he retired from football in 2009. He was however released on the same day (Tuesday, May 12) he was arrested after he was questioned and has written a statement.
Besides the 43-year-old former Columbia international who is now sports pundit in Spain, ten other people were also arrested as part of the ongoing investigation of the cocaine smuggling syndicate.
“I’m very calm,” he told sports show El Chiringuito, for which he works as a pundit. “It’s not a comfortable situation, but I’m at home… relaxed. They asked me a series of questions and, in the end, I returned home.
“They told me to be ready for another call,” he said. “I’m free and I’m relaxed because I don’t traffic cocaine, I don’t have cocaine at home.
“The police said to me that I have to stay away from certain people who are no good for me. That I have to be aware of things and do them in a different way.”
Edwin Congo was brought to Spain by Real Madrid in 1999 from a club in Colombia Once Caldas. He spent three seasons at Real Madrid without playing any competitive match. The only match he managed to play for the club was a charity match to raise funds and awareness against drug use in 2002. And that was the only match the retired striker managed to score a goal for Real Madrid.
In his three seasons at Real Madrid, he was sent on loan to at least three clubs – Valladolid, Vitoria Guimaraes of Portugal and Toulouse of France.
His best days in Spanish football came when he left Real Madrid in 2002 to join Levante. While at the Spanish La Liga side, he scored over 21 goals in 112 appearances before he left for Sporting Gijon.
He didn’t also have a smooth and long national team career as he only managed to make 17 appearances for Columbia scoring only three goals in 5 years. He retired from active football in 2009 to face punditry.
